A comparative analysis of the morphological characteristics of elite karatekas, judokas, taekwondoists, boxers and wrestlers

Abstract

© 2015, Universidad de la Frontera. All rights reserved. The aim of this research was to use a system of 37 variables of morphological characteristics on a sample of 108 elite male athletes (25 karatekas, 27 judokas, 19 taekwondoists, 18 boxers and 19 wrestlers), aged 17 to 23, to determine any statistically significant differences between the groups of athletes in terms of variable means, so that during the training process, the selection of athletes could be carried out in a proper and objective manner and that the training transformation processes could be managed more effectively. After processing the data using the statistical method of a multivariate and univariate analysis of variance (MANOVA/ANOVA), we obtained results that indicate that among the karatekas, judokas, taekwondoists, boxers and wrestlers in the entire system of (multivariate) morphological variables there is a statistically significant difference between the means (p=0.000). The results of the research have shown that what we are dealing with are different morphological structures of athletes involved in different sports. Since in the longitudinal and transversal dimensionality of the skeleton the values are more pronounced for boxers, wrestlers and karatekas, during selection it is necessary to be vigilant, since these are morphological characteristics which are genetically limited and can only change up to only 2% during the training process, while for voluminosity and body mass and subcutaneous fatty tissue there is the possibility of carrying out transformations of 20-50%.